Preston New Road

As the protest at Preston New Road, Lancashire, marks its second anniversary, one mother and daughter look back on their unexpected transformation from a regular family into activists at the frontline of the UK’s anti-fracking movement.

“I was flicking through the Blackpool Gazette when I saw a little community advert saying ‘Fracking in Blackpool’. I thought it said fucking,” Julie tells me.

“You know when something catches your eye, like when something says ‘free’ or ‘sex’, and you can't help but look back? I phoned my sister, asking if she’d heard about it. I said whatever it is, it's dead in the water because it sounds too much like fucking. If it had been called ‘fluffy kittens’ we would have had a much tougher battle.”

For the second time in four days, fracking company Cuadrilla halted and restarted its fracking activities at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire because of seismic activity, leading to many “earthquake” headlines in the media.

But who decides when fracking needs to stop and can be restarted? DeSmog UK unpacks the monitoring and real-time decision-making process behind fracking.

Shale gas exploration company Cuadrilla has breached environmental permits multiple times and failed to disclose full details of technical issues at its Lancashire site, a DeSmog UK investigation has found.

The company breached its environmental permits seven times in 10 months in 2017, analysis of Freedom of Information requests and publicly available Environment Agency Compliance Assessment Reports shows.

DeSmog UK’s investigation also uncovered a survey commissioned by the company that identified faults with a protective membrane, despite the company telling local residents it had never needed repairs.

It’s nearly 11 o’clock and people are arriving in droves at Maple Farm. Cars are lining up patiently and parking next door and coaches from faraway towns are disgorging dozens of smiling people onto the pavement outside.

This is what people power looks like.

The atmosphere is electric. There is a palpable feeling that something is changing as it becomes clear that there are not just a couple of hundred people here, but nearer to 1,000.

Judge Robert Altham sentenced Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Richard Loizou to up to 16 months in prison after they were convicted by a jury of causing a public nuisance offence. The protesters had their sentences quashed in an appeal case last week.

Under the Judicial Code of Conduct, judges are expected to disclose personal relationships, social contacts and activities that could cause a bias or a conflict of interest and which put their impartiality into question.

Three judges have quashed the prison sentence of the three anti-fracking protestors, ruling the sentence to be “manifestly excessive”. The court room erupted into applause, when the decision was announced.

Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Richard Loizou will walk out free of Preston prison in Lancashire this evening and go home to their families.

The appeal case was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday morning in a packed court room with Blevins, Roberts and Loizou appearing through a video link from Preston prison.

Environmental campaigners converged on the Royal Courts of Justice in support of an appeal against the “excessive” sentencing of three anti-fracking protestors, warning that the case could set “a dangerous precedent that punishes environmental protestors for their beliefs”.

Dozens of campaigners carrying the red rose of Lancashire gathered in front of the court on Wednesday morning to show their support for the appeal case and denounced the sentencing of the three men as “disproportionate”.

Council pension funds across the UK have invested billions in companies involved with fracking, new data claims. Authorities in areas where the controversial practice is set to take place also have millions invested such companies.

Some of the funds also have investments in companies with close ties to members of President Trump’s administration, which is currently embarking on a major climate and environmental regulation roll-back.

The UK government is recruiting a shale gas commissioner to “facilitate communication” with residents and push what is sees as the benefits of a new fossil fuel industry. The position was announced days before the government gave the go-ahead for fracking to start in Lancashire.

The new role of shale commissioner has been described by the government as “an independent appointment” which will have no powers of enforcement or investigation but will aim to “improve local understanding of shale gas operations by directing concerned local parties to relevant and impartial fact based information”.

Pages

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE